View full sizeTim Larsen/Governor's OfficeGov. Chris Christie charmed thousands of people at the annual firefighters' convention in Wildwood Friday, but continues working to mend his relationship with the state's top firefighters union. The governor is pictured here during a town hall meeting in Howell on Wednesday, Sept. 12.

WILDWOOD — Gov. Chris Christie charmed thousands in Wildwood on Friday at a convention of the New Jersey Firemen's Association, but he has a way to go to mend his relationship with another group, the state’s largest firefighters union.

Christie struck a conciliatory tone in an address to the group made up of paid firefighters as well as volunteers, many of whom hold public jobs. The warm reception was a stark contrast to the boos he received two years ago after breaking a campaign promise never to cut union pensions.

"I walked away from the meeting here two years ago really encouraged," he told a packed arena at the beachfront Wildwoods Convention Center. "I was encouraged because of all the people, as I made my way out of here, who came up to say hello to me and say things like, ‘I hate what you’re doing, but I understand why you’re doing it.’ "

Outside, American flags hung from hook-and-ladders trucks and bagpipers played as Christie left for Indiana, where he planned to attend a fundraiser for Mike Pence, a Republican congressman who is running for governor.

But when the union representing 5,500 career firefighters meets next week in Atlantic City, the governor has no plans to pay a visit..

"His audience there is far different," Bill Lavin, president of the New Jersey State Firefighters’ Mutual Benevolent Association, said in a telephione interview. "We would love for him to address the career guys, but he’s refused to do that."

Many in Lavin’s union were incensed this summer when Christie, at a speech to the Brookings Institute, a liberal research organization in Washington, said he didn’t want President Barack Obama to provide stimulus money to hire more teachers, police officers and firefighters.

Lavin, a captain in Ladder Company 2 in Elizabeth, said he, too, planned to speak in Wildwood on Friday, but his department was too short-staffed for him to get away.

"We’re hopeful that his remarks were at a softer tone," Lavin said of the governor. "And hopefully one day we can have a real conversation about what’s happening in our inner-city fire departments."

In Wildwood, the firefighters gave Christie his first applause during the 25-minute talk when he explained that police and firefighter pension funds are closer to being fully funded than they were when he took office.

Two years ago the state fund was at 51 percent, he said, and today its funded at 60 percent, adding that the local fund, at 77 percent today, had been at 69 percent. When the funds reach 80 percent, Christie said, a state-established board of government officials and firefighters will decide whether to raise annual cost-of-living adjustments to pensions.

"Without the reforms we would have never gotten there," he said. "With the reforms, we now know that we are on a real path to making sure everybody in police and fire who is entitled to a pension who has earned a pension is going to be able to collect a pension."

When he walked off the dais, he answered a question from Michael Giannantonio, a firefifghter and emergency medical technician from Magnolia, and gave another hint that he will seek re-election.

"You have paid and volunteer in this room," Giannantonio said after talking to Christie. "If he needs to get us back to where we need to be, these are the votes he needs and that’s what I told him. I said, how long do you think it’s going to take for us to get out of this, to fix this budget? He said, ‘About another two or three years.’ "